In the realm of filmmaking, there’s a spectrum of directors.
On the one side, you have those who are happy to work fairly anonymously, letting others have plenty of input in the final product and shooting with little to no personal touches or flare. Plenty of TV directors fall into this category, along with some studio filmmakers.
On the other there are the auteurs, those whom you hire specifically for their signature style and flourishes. Their fingerprints are all over a movie and what they say goes. Various directors considered household names fall into this category.
Often you get a mix in between – some starting one way and then drifting towards the other. Some great studio films see auteurs slightly toning down their excesses but still applying enough of their style to make a formulaic work seem fresh – Sam Mendes’ “Skyfall,” Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Drive” and Spike Lee’s “Inside Man” are good examples of this.
Filmmaker Zack Snyder on the other hand won’t tone down his style and approach, when you hire Zack Snyder for a movie you’re hiring him to make a Zack Snyder movie. Speaking with The Times recently, Snyder was asked about his process as a director and he says he always approaches the material from a point of view that doesn’t jive with everyone:
“Where it gets difficult is when you take a director with a personal point of view and ask him to participate in a thing that is not asking for that. The journeyman filmmaker? There are a lot of them, and they’re good. I just happen to have a specific point of view.”
Snyder says he’s also learned it’s far easier for him to create his own world rather than try to fit himself into someone else’s. He says that’s why, though he’d love to make a “Star Wars” film, he won’t:
“The lesson I’ve learned is it’s much easier for me, as a filmmaker, to create a world and invite you into it. As opposed to me saying, ‘Let me put my cog in your wheel.’ Like, I would love to make a Star Wars movie. I know a lot about it…but I don’t think I would survive that.”
Snyder is currently out promoting “Army of the Dead,” the zombie heist film that serves as a potential franchise launcher with more works set in that world already on the way.
